Beschreibung:

PICKETT, GEORGE, Major General, C.S.A. Autograph letter signed ("G.E. Pickett") to Harrie Hough, a former aide-de-camp, Richmond, 21 March 1872. 4 pages, 4to , on Washington Life Insurance Co. stationery. GEORGE PICKETT, INSURANCE BROKER IN THE POST-WAR SOUTH An ebullient letter: "Do you recognize the handwriting? Ah me how much of it you have had to copy in the days when hope was still uppermost in our hearts. I have, however, long since ceased to pour our my soul in useless laments. We used always, even to the 'last gasp' at Sailor's Creek [Saylor's Creek, 6 April 1865], to meet the enemy boldly and now that we have another and more formidable enemy to encounter, poverty , it will not do to sit down quietly and be captured. So you will perceive Harrie by the heading of this letter that your old chief is doing what they say Mrs. Dombey would not do 1making an effort' to 'keep the wolf from the door.' After years of skirmishing with said wolf I have at last obtained the agency for the State of Va. of the 'Washington Life.' My salary is not sufficient to live upon, but if successful it will in time increase, but all depends on success...So I sincerely hope some of my old comrades & friends may take into consideration the benefit...of investing in the Washington, and also the great good to be done the Commander of the Grand Old Va. Division. If therefore my boy you can enlist with me once more I shall take it as a compliment..." He goes on to give news of former companions in arms, including "Col. Joe of the 3rd," and gives news of his family. Pickett (1825-1875), whose name has been attached to the dramatic and costly Confederate charge on the third day of Gettysburg, surrendered at Appomattox with Lee and Longstreet. After the war he declined an offer to become a U.S. Marshall and a commission as General from the Khedive of Egypt, to run an insurance agency.